


Four Months

by greygerbil



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 05:39:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7562494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes four months for Sonny to be sure that he's actually in a relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Months

After three weeks of occasionally hooking up, Sonny slept over for the first time. Rafael hadn’t sent him home on a walk of shame before or anything, but with his work schedule being what it was and Sonny constantly rushing back to his books to cram years worth of law school into his head to pass the impending bar, it just didn’t happen.

It was a few days after he had taken the all-important test that he stayed in bed after they were done, spent and tired, and watching Rafael already drift off. Despite karmic justice in the D’Amico case done via video leak, Rafael was still two nights short of sleep. Being the one who carried the brunt of the blame for bringing the case to trial in the first place, who got to handle the press and the brass, also took its toll. Sonny, for his part, hadn’t really had eight hours with his head on a pillow for longer than he could think. Even if he had wanted to go, he probably couldn’t have even managed to put his shoes on the right feet.

Sadly, this also meant he couldn’t really enjoy that rare peaceful moment between them. All Sonny managed was to throw his arm across Rafael’s stomach before he was out like a light.

What he missed in the evening, he could make up for in the soft light of the morning that filtered red through Rafael’s curtains. After re-emerging in the world of the living from a deep sleep, Dominick propped himself up on his arm to take a good long look at Rafael. Sometime in the night, he must have turned around, maybe like twenty times, judging by the state of his hair, or had Sonny’s fingers done that when they were getting busy yesterday? Either way his hair was sticking in all directions. The tension that usually ran through his body and left him looking much taller was gone, his forehead smooth with just the lines that were already etched there permanently. Sonny smiled at the image, running his knuckles gently down the Rafael’s chest, through the soft, dark curls. 

“If you’re awake, you can go make coffee, detective,” Rafael murmured.

-

Rafael was the snappiest dresser in the D.A.’s office, even with some strong competition among his colleagues, and, yeah, Sonny loved it. He was not too proud to admit that his own wardrobe might have gotten a little more sophisticated just ‘cause he was taking a few pages out of Rafael’s book. Peeling off layers of expensive fabric, multicoloured suspenders and underwear that somehow matched the socks without looking tacky was a lot of fun, too.

That meant it came as quite the shock when he visited Rafael on a Saturday evening for dinner and a movie and, half an hour to early, found himself facing the attorney in black jeans and a muted grey polo shirt.

“Hello, Dominick. Overeager as usual, I see.”

Rafael stepped aside to let Sonny enter.

“If you weren’t early, I’d have had time to change,” Rafael pointed out, apparently reading Sonny’s thoughts. Well, he had to admit, it probably wasn’t difficult. He was blatantly staring at him, drinking in the unusual sight.

“Sorry. I’ve just never seen you dressed down. Hey.”

Belated, he leaned down to place a kiss on Rafael’s lips. He’d tried that out a couple weeks ago and it turned out Rafael didn’t mind being kissed hello and goodbye – even in public, as long as it wasn’t in front of colleagues, but they were both still careful with that.

“Must our dalliance end now?” Rafael’s voice was laced with sarcasm and Sonny knew he didn’t mean it because Rafael was a smart man and thus no doubt aware of how shamefully tight he had Sonny wrapped around his little finger. “I want to point out that I have put up with sweat pants and tank tops from you.”

“You like ‘em. Well, you like complaining about ‘em,” Sonny said, with a smile. “This looks good on you, too.”

“Is that so?” Rafael cocked his head. “If I don’t have to try for you, I will at least do it for the restaurant. Excuse me for a moment.”

With that, he vanished through the door into the bedroom and Sonny resisted the urge to stroll after him and watch him change.

It took Sonny seeing Rafael spend a lazy morning at his own place in the same sort of weekend outfit, sometime two months into their _thing_ , to understand why it had been such a fascinating sight. In a pair of blue jeans and a normal button-up shirt, Rafael almost looked like he might not feel completely out of place on Sonny’s threadbare, worn couch, and wasn’t that a nice thought?

-

Even after three months, unless they were interrupted by a call from work or had just scheduled to meet for lunch, their dates always ended in bed (or on the sofa, or, one memorable time, Sonny’s kitchen table). So, obviously, knowing what he could hope for, Sonny might have spent a little time today fantasising about how he wanted the evening to go, staring into space at his desk until Amanda threw a rolled-up ball of a badly printed witness’ statement at him.

They had opted for a night in and Rafael had chosen the movie, _All Quiet on the Western Front_ , which Sonny had mentioned he’d read and liked in college. With characters dropping like flies, it wasn’t exactly the film to make out to, but Sonny was engrossed in the story of the doomed WWI soldiers in the trenches until the credits.

“The end still gets me. I-“

“What?”

Rafael bolted upright, blinking rapidly. It didn’t take a detective to piece together he’d been sleeping; the unfocused, confused look first directed and Sonny then at the screen wasn’t subtle. Rafael rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

“Excuse me,” he muttered.

“Long day?” Sonny asked.

“They all are. What did I miss?”

“Tragedy, and a message about the value of human life, and, you know, senselessness of war and stuff.”

Sonny took a look at Rafael. He still didn’t seem fully awake now, clearly fighting to keep his eyes open, his shoulders sagging forward, and his comments hadn’t come quite as quickly as usual, either. He’d been doing enough overtime for a second job this week, so it wasn’t a surprise.

“We should head to bed. You’d be angry if I let you crease those pants sleeping in them,” Sonny said, with a grin, offering his hand.

“How courteous. But you’re not here for a sleepover, are you?”

Even that smirk was undercut just a little by how sleep-rough his voice sounded. Sure, he was right, Sonny disliked shelving his daydreams, but he knew himself well enough to realise he’d feel like an ass watching Rafael give a sloppy blowjob out of obligation. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, can’t always be up for it, right? Come on.”

It didn’t take much to convince Rafael. He nodded his head.

“We still have the morning,” he said, with a little smile.

That was the first time Sonny had come over just to spend the night and nothing else and when Rafael leaned his head against his shoulder when he fell asleep again, his fingers curling against Sonny’s stomach, he suddenly didn’t feel very disappointed anymore.

-

“Can you hand me my coffee, papi?”

Rafael stretched out his hand towards Sonny sitting at the other end of the sofa. His gaze was glued to the screen of his tablet, so he missed Sonny’s jaw dropping to the floor.

“Coffee,” Rafael demanded, after shell-shocked Sonny failed to react, swiping his finger over the screen through his list of e-mails. “This child service case I’ve been asked to assist on is a nightmare. That A.D.A. has to be babysat more than the actual kids involved…”

“What did you just call me?” Sonny asked, his paralysis finally dissolving into a broad grin. He grabbed Rafael’s mug from the edge of the couch table and placed it in his outstretched hand.

“I don’t know, what did I just call you, Dominick?”

Taking a sip, Rafael glanced at him, absent-minded. Right, there was another matter to take care of first.

“No work tonight,” Sonny reminded him, closing the gap between them. He smelled a wisp of his aftershave, a subtle, spicy musk that made Sonny press his nose against Rafael’s neck, a quick diversion he indulged in before he snatched his tablet away. “You promised. Besides, you gotta listen to your papi.”

Rafael stared at him and Sonny could see the moment on his face when he hit repeat in his head and put this last part of the conversation in context with Sonny’s remark. If he hadn’t known any better, Sonny could have sworn that the tips of Rafael’s ears grew a touch red.

“Old habits die hard, _Dominick_ ,” he said, a little too stern.

“So… is the reason you never call me Sonny ‘cause you’d rather call me Daddy?”

If anything came out of this, it was that he had seldomly seen Rafael look this disgusted if not placed right in front of a guilty perp. That was sort of an achievement. Rafael put the mug down.

“I might settle on Detective Carisi.”

“Nah, hey – I’m sorry.” Finally, he couldn’t keep himself from laughing and and gave Rafael a gentle squeeze. “I just didn’t know you called me anything in your head.”

“You mean besides an idiot? Not usually.”

“Nice try, Counsellor, but it’s too late for that now. I know your dark secret. I’m your papi,” Sonny said with a smile. It wasn’t hard to deflect Rafael’s biting comments when he’d already shown his hand and, judging by the storm cloud on Rafael’s expression, he knew it, too.

“It has nothing to do with whatever bewildering sexual diversions you are thinking of.” Rafael raised a brow at him. “It’s just a nickname I heard a lot growing up.”

“Yah, I know,” Sonny said, waving his hand. “You didn’t say it flirty,” he added.

For a moment, Rafael studied his face, seeing his no doubt satisfied smile.

“Enlighten me. Why are you looking like a kid on Christmas morning?”

“Dominick’s almost a nickname, I guess, since you’re the only person to call me that. You and my grandma when she’s mad. I just didn’t think you did that sort of... boyfriend stuff.”

“Since I’d only do them with my boyfriend, how would you have known before now? Although,” Rafael straightened his sleeve, “I admit I expected you to be the one to brandish the cutesy nicknames first, too.”

Putting the word ‘boyfriend’ out there had been Sonny’s equivalent of throwing out the bait and hearing Rafael swallow it without a fight or even a snarky comment had his heart suddenly in his throat. Dominick smiled. He’d known, he told himself. They’d been going out for four months now. Still, it was good to have some clarity that Rafael felt the same way about him, in fact, hadn’t even had to think about it or even looked surprised.

“I thought you wouldn’t like it.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Rafael wound himself out of his embrace to reclaim his coffee mug.

“I think it’s something I accepted when I started dating Dominick ‘Call me Sonny’ Carisi’ – but don’t let me encourage you,” he said, taking the last sip before he placed it back on the table.

Because he didn’t want to look like he was fourteen and Rafael his first crush who’d just checked ‘yes’ on the Will-You-Go-Out-With-Me note, Sonny pulled him in for a kiss to mask his giddy excitement, licking the bitter coffee from his lips.

“I guess now I gotta think of something real interesting,” he said. “Since you’ve basically given me free reign.”

“Maybe you should choose something I’d actually like instead. That’s what I did, after all. Accidentally, but the point stands.” Rafael smirked and leaned over. “I bet you wouldn’t mind it ‘flirty’, either, would you, _papi_?”

The way Rafael breathed the word into his ear, lips grazing over the shell, had the blood rushing downwards so fast Sonny thought he might collapse right here on the sofa. He hadn’t even known that was something he was into (or what exactly _that_ was: Rafael’s quietly intimate voice, the Spanish, the alpha male implications of the nickname, the confident come-hither look he was getting, or all of it at once). But then, Rafael had always been remarkably good at figuring out everything Sonny had never known he wanted. He edged ever closer now, reaching out to touch Sonny’s shoulder, knee nudging against his thigh.

“What’s going on, papi? Lost your tongue?”

His fingers dragged gently downwards over his shoulders, teasing his arm, his wrist – and ripped the tablet from Sonny’s hand. He was on his feet a second later, grabbing the empty coffee mug as well.

“Take your time thinking of that nickname, papi,” he said, as he sauntered towards the kitchen. “I’ll finish my e-mail.”


End file.
